I am writing to express my strong support for the Kids First team of Leon Gold, Irene Sobolov, and Jennifer Evans in the upcoming Board of Education election. As a Board member as well as a Wallace parent, I have seen the wonderful, positive changes occurring over the past few years and I know they will keep the district moving forward for my child and yours.

As a Board member, I am most excited seeing the hard work and strong planning bring real success for the students in the district. Kids First has had the majority for the past four years and has spent that time supporting the staff, investing in the classroom and providing much needed materials and capital improvements. The administration, with the support of the Board, has provided the groundwork to give our children the opportunity to succeed in all of our schools.

We have replaced virtually every Math, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies textbook in the district with up-to-date textbooks that contain digital components and interaction with our Smartboards, laptops and iPads in the class. We have invested in technology and programming to create data-driven measures of student evaluation to pinpoint and address individual student needs. We have invested in our staff with hundreds of hours of professional development to support them in using these new materials.

There is real, documented success! We have raised the bar, provided the support and have seen the positive results. There is an upward trend in test scores and a higher percentage of advanced proficient learners. We have focused the district's time, energy and funding into the classroom and it is working.

As a parent I am grateful, as I know other parents are, for the increased transparency and open communication with the district. All the schools have active PTOs and School Leadership Committees and a District PTO was established. The district website was redesigned and parents can now contact their teacher, check their child’s progress and assignments, keep up on new curriculum initiatives and district events, check the budget and even watch the BOE meetings online. The new digital components mean that many textbooks and even homework assignments are online, reducing those heavy backpacks!

Personally, I am also proud that my first official act as Chair of the Curriculum Committee was to open the meetings to parents and the community. Many exciting ideas have evolved out of the open discussions including a strong focus on the well rounded student with increased math, language arts, science, music and the arts at every grade. Everyone is welcome to attend and participate.

I urge you to cast your three votes on Nov.5 for Leon Gold, Irene Sobolov, and Jennifer Evans (3-5-8 on the ballot) to keep the progress going. They have the commitment, passion, and experience to move the district forward for all the students.